Tickets to the 2019 National Sports Collectors Convention in Chicago went on sale Monday morning.

This is the 40th year for the large confab of collectors, dealers, auction companies, authenticators, breakers and anyone else associated with the hobby.

General admission and VIP packages are being sold now. Autograph tickets will be available at a later date.

The show is set for July 31-August 4 at the Stephens Convention Center in Chicago (Rosemont), IL.

Vintage Pack breaker JustRipIt.com is raising money to fight children’s cancer with a special pack break set for Tuesday night.

They’ll open a 1969 Topps baseball cello pack with Rico Petrocelli on the front. Owner Charlie Parrino will open the pack alongside Petrocelli, who will sign the card for the collector in the break who has that spot in the break.

The company has also created a new “Equity Pack” concept where cards from a pack break aren’t distributed to participants, but rather sold. The proceeds are then divvied up between those who bought in. Typically, a more valuable pack with potential high dollar cards will be offered.

Long-time collector/dealer Brian Cataquet (“The Baseball Card King”) has his own radio show on KMET. He recently chatted with Mike Posner of MLB Authentication on a variety of topics.

Posner says Authenticators Inc., the in-person autograph authentication arm of the company, is now expanding into other sports and will authenticate upwards of 30,000 autographs over five days at an upcoming Star Wars convention in Chicago, witnessing signatures for Lucasfilms.

About Rich Mueller

Rich is the editor and founder of Sports Collectors Daily. A broadcaster and writer for more than 30 years and a collector for even longer than that, he's usually typing something somewhere. Type him back at [email protected]